DEFAZIO RESPONDS TO LATEST ROBINSON RUSE TO MODIFY VIEWS

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Releases video highlighting Robinson’s extreme positions

Eugene, OR- Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-Springfield) today released a web video called “Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood”, showcasing Art Robinson’s long-held, extreme positions. Despite Robinson’s recent attempt to reinvent his extreme views in his self-published book Common Sense in 2012 which he has sent to 4th district voters, the DeFazio campaign video sets the record straight and uses Art Robinson’s speeches, newsletter passages, and radio statements to point out his true views on ending Social Security, our public schools, and other issues.

This isn’t the first time Robinson has attempted to fool voters. Previously, Robinson convinced his college age son, Matthew Robinson, to change party registration and run against DeFazio in the 2012 Democratic primary election. Matthew Robinson received less than 10% of the vote in the Democratic primary.

The web video highlights Robinson’s extreme views on two critical issues, Social Security and education.

Despite his attempt to recast himself as Social Security’s great defender in 2012, Art Robinson has repeatedly called Social Security a “Ponzi Scheme” including as recently as December 2011. And he has said in speeches and interviews that programs like Social Security and Medicare should be ended by attrition.

For more than a decade Robinson campaigned to abolish all public education while selling his home schooling curriculum, calling public schools “dens of child abuse”. But now, Robinson is trying to distance himself from his long-held radical beliefs. Now, he wants voters to believe he didn’t mean it, and instead he just wants to abolish the Department of Education.

“It’s easy for Robinson to spend over $200,000 to send out this work of fiction to thousands of voters given that he knows special interest SuperPACs will unleash a torrent of television ads attacking me this fall. Art Robinson is trying to erase the extreme positions he held for decades in his newsletter articles, speeches, and interviews and portray himself as more of a moderate. He didn’t fool voters in 2010, he didn’t fool the voters in the Democratic primary, and he won’t fool them with the 400 pages of reconstructed history. We just want to set the record straight,” said DeFazio.

The 2010 general election was the worst campaign year for Democrats since 1947. Despite the fact that Art Robinson, with the support of a Wall Street financed Super PAC significantly outspent DeFazio, he was soundly defeated (43-54). Now in his second attempt against DeFazio, Robinson is attempting to rewrite history and his extreme views.

“My campaign office has been flooded with calls from citizens concerned and angry with his attempts to confuse voters. Many have dropped his book off at my campaign office. This ad is the first in a series of ads that will be released to set the record straight and reveal the real Art Robinson.,” said DeFazio.

Additional Background

Last August Art Robinson’s son Matthew changed his party registration to Democrat so he could run against DeFazio in the 2012 primary. Despite Art Robinson’s assurances that the two Robinson campaigns are separate, the campaigns share the same campaign manager, share the same address, and Art Robinson solicited money from his donors for his son’s campaign. Matthew has repeatedly said that he shares the same views as his father. In fact, according to the Register Guard, he "couldn’t identify any major political difference between himself and his father”.

And in another ridiculous stunt, last year Robinson accused DeFazio of ordering Oregon State University (OSU) to have his adult children kicked out of the OSU Nuclear Engineering graduate program. He admitted he had no proof when asked about his bizarre conspiracy theory. But this didn't stop him from launching a vicious media assault against OSU calling it a "liberal socialist Democrat stronghold" that "dances to the tune of the Democrat machine.”